"From Kuroth’s Quill" is grodog's regular design column covering the elements of adventure design (and more-specifically dungeon design, given my interest in that topic). I will also wander through the design of spells and magic items; monsters, traps, tricks, and treasures; PC and NPC classes; planes and pantheons; and likely other topics as well. In the blog, I hope to provide practical examples that will be useful in campaign play, to show theory in action.

28 February 2018

After a longer delay than planned, Tony Rosten and I are happy to announce that the Spring 2018 third issue of The Twisting Stair is going to press this week, and will debut at GaryCon next week (8-11 March 2018, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin)!

The Twisting Stair, issues 1-3

Like TTS#2, The Twisting Stair #3 is 20 pages long, is priced at $5, and is available in print format only.

TTS#3 Contents

Here's the TOC for The Twisting Stair #3 (Spring 2018):

From Kuroth’s Quill by Allan -- "Mega-Dungeon Mapping Strategies for Players" (in which Allan attempts to make mapping fun!)

The Centerfold Mega-Dungeon Map by Tony and Allan -- The third 11"x17" level of The Twisting Stair dungeon

Wandering Pairings by Tony -- Third-level wandering monsters

Down the Twisting Stair by Tony -- Vertical Design in the Mega-Dungeon

The Ups and Downs of Vertical Encounter Design

Encounter: "Will you climb into my Parlour?" said the Great Red Spider to the Fly

Vertical Design Involving Multiple Encounters

Encounter: The Upside-Down Water Lock

Vertical Design that Spans Multiple Dungeon Levels

Stackable Geomorphs Add Verticality to Your Mega-Dungeon by Tony and Allan -- A new type of geomorph designed to increase vertical space in dungeon design

3 stackable base geomorphs

6 stackable geomorphs

3 blank stackable geomorphs

Ordering and Shipping Process, New Paypal Account

New
orders can be placed by sending $4 for TTS#1 and $5 for TTS#2 or TTS#3 and using the above
postage guidelines to calculate postage due. You can submit payment via our new TTS Paypal account: thetwistingstair@gmail.com.

If you would like to buy more than 2 copies an issue of The Twisting Stair, please request a postage quote by emailing thetwistingstair@gmail.com, then Tony or Allan will get back to you.FYI, if you're ordering just copies of TTS, Allan will ship those orders; if you're ordering copies of TTS as well as other Black Blade Publishing books, then Jon is happy to combine shipping for those orders, and you'll place the order and remit payment via his Black Blade email address tacojohndm@yahoo.com.

Combined Shipping: We're happy to combine shipping of copies of TTS#1 and #2, of course, as well as with existing Black Blade Publishing stock when possible.

The Fine Print on Postage: All
prices are in United States Dollars (USD), and we may need to change
them with issue #4 (which may be larger than the 20 pages in issue #3),
or if I go to the post office and find that our due diligence didn't
quite pan out for some reason.

Back Issues Availability, Subscriptions, Submissions, PDFs, and Other Questions

At this time, we are not offering subscriptions to The Twisting Stair, but we are in the process of setting up freelance submissions. If you are interested in contributing to TTS as a freelance author, cartographer, or artist, please email us at thetwistingstair@gmail.com. We also only offer TTS in print at this time, no PDFs. Those statuses
may-well change in the future, but since The Twisting Stair is a new
venture for both Tony and Allan, we're trying to keep things manageable
while we get our sea legs.

Followers

About grodog

Allan T. Grohe Jr. has been playing D&D and other rpgs since 1977. Allan’s first professional gaming publication (“More for the Shadow Master”) appeared in White Wolf Magazine #11 in 1987; he has also contributed to The Unspeakable Oath, Pyramid, Polyhedron, and Dragon Magazine, among others. Allan co-founded Event Horizon Productions, and has worked extensively with Biohazard Games (Blue Planet, Upwind), Pagan Publishing (Call of Cthulhu publisher of Delta Green), Different Worlds Publications (Tadashi Ehara), and Pied Piper Publishing (Robert J. Kuntz). Allan co-founded Black Blade Publishing with Jon Hershberger in 2009.
Allan’s editorial, design, and development work has contributed to winning one Origins Award and securing four Origins Award nominations, winning one ENnie Award and two ENnie Award nominations.
Allan is known online as grodog, where he publishes a website featuring Greyhawk D&D content, as well as his non-gaming writing (poetry, personal essays, and literary scholarship), and the usual fan ephemera. He lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his lovely wife Heather, their two boys Ethan and Henry, and their two pugs Tara and Gypsy.